35 - . - . I -- ,'N ... - I -r I I - - r'_ 1 I - ,,. I I . --- I I - .' . 1 I ,.- l I 1 - I- I I I - - I I I , I I - I I .. I I I I I I \ I " I I I I I I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I ,. I I I I I 1 " I T I ! 0 T ., , þ I i I ., I I I I I I .0 I I I S = I I I I - -- I ... .. ... - . <to .. .. ... '" " 1* c[ "H OW'S business?" "Oh, about the sarrte." . Apperson had been postponed one week. I ran Into Mrs. Apperson again in the corridor outside. She was with a chubby youth of about twenty, whose haIr was neatly combed and who looked as if he had just been scrubbed. "This is my nephew Ralph, who is lny brother's boy and a student at Brooklyn College," h ' d " H ' h . s e sal. e s suc a nIce boy, too- never gets into trouble, and is working while he's getting an education!" Ralph shuffled, grinned, gulped, cleared his throat, and spoke to me earnestly, shakIng a finger in my face. "I understand that you are interested in young men who are brought down here to the criminal courts," said Ralph. "Let me tell you right now, sir, that you can't generalize from Joseph's case. Plenty of boys grow up in Brooklyn and don't ever get In trouble. They become doctors and lawyers and get jobs like anyone else. And it's not entire- ly economic conditions that produce crIme. My family are just as poor as Joseph's, and I'm not in trouble." "What do you think the explanation is in Joseph's case?" I asked him. "These kids that hang around Forty- second Street are just trYIng to make an easy dollar," he said. "Joseph could have had a job. His father took him to the fur workers' union, but he wouldn't . work for forty dollars a week. No, he wanted to hang around Broadway. And don't think it's just New York kids that hang around Broadway. There's plenty of kids from out of town hanging around there and doing the same things. What Joseph needs is a psychiatrist- psychiatric attention. He's just on the wrong track. Needs to be straIghtened out." "See what a nice nephew I got!" Mrs. Apperson said. I thanked Ralph for his statement, and he graciously mentioned one or two other conclusions that he said I ought to dJ aw from] oseph's case. "I have learned this," Mrs. Apperson added. "It proves you got to live right and live clean. I know now it's not enough to just give a child enough to eat. Y ou got to care for a child and give it lots of affection I am already doing that with my baby-my twelve-year- old. I carry her around piggyback. We have such fun! I give her affection. She's so happy ! You see, to give love, you got to receive love. That's the trouble with Joseph's father. He was an orphan and he never receIved love, so he can't give love. He don't know how to love the children. He should have been a big brother to Joseph, and not so hard on him all the time." .-./ -----:-:--:-- . . . .. A!R'a.. \ : Ralph nodded judiciously and said, "Exactly. Exactly." "I read in the paper that my son was called Happy by hIs Broadway com- panions," Mrs. Apperson went on. "1 don't believe in happiness. I think life is what we make it. Joseph has good instincts. At least he pulled away from the corners of Brooklyn. My son, he lives in a world I would like to live in- a dream world where everything is fine. I would like to be in that world. I know him so well. I-I am like him. When I was younger- But perhaps it is not so good. Look where it got] oseph. All this. " Abruptly, her voice cracked and tears came into her eyes Ralph looked un- comfortable. Mrs. Apperson said good- bye to me and took Ralph by the arm, and they went off down the corridor. T HE fourth time I went to the courtroom In the Cnminal Courts Building, a week later, Joseph's lawyer stopped me in the corridor. "We're cooking with gas," he said. "A week ago, one Judge voted for con viction, one voted for dismissal, and the third couldn't make up his mind. That's why they postponed this thing. But we're in I knew it would turn out this way. The third judge just wanted some more